Grouping of Y-STR haplotypes discloses European geographic clines

Y-STR haplotypes are widely studied in Europe and an extensive databasing effort has been conducted (http://www.ystr.org). The distribution of these haplotypes has been considered to present no evidence for substructure at central and southern European level. This picture contrasts with the one that results from Y haplogroups defined by binary markers. This paradox has been solved by admitting that the high STR mutation rate and corresponding recurrence has erased geographic structuration. This explanation prompted us to reanalyse Y-STR haplotypes distribution bearing in mind the commonly admitted model for the generation of diversity in these markers, namely the stepwise mutation model (SMM) and, thus, taking the molecular distance between haplotypes into consideration. Accordingly, we have studied the European distribution of the two most frequent haplotypes in the Iberian Peninsula and their one step neighbours using the European samples deposited in the Y STR database (http://www.ystr.org). For the first group we found a clear-cut decreasing W-E gradient, while for the second the highest frequencies were found in the Iberian Peninsula (3.98% in Portugal and 3.85% in Spain), dropping to 2.88% in France and showing a less well defined SW-NW gradient. Furthermore, we have tested the agreement between haplotype groups and binary markers haplogroups in a random sample of 292 individuals from Northern Portugal. Our results demonstrate that (a) Y-STR haplotype data can be used for wide-scale anthropological approaches disclosing information that has been considered only available through binary markers and (b) forensic use of continental databases needs careful refinement, due to the macro-geographic pattern now evidenced.     

Gresham's law in politics: Why are politicians not the most remarkable men for probity and punctuality?

Economists have always criticized politicians' behaviour. Adam Smith called politicians “crafty and insidious"; and, more recently Brennan and Buchanan have applied Gresham's law to politics, arguing that the man for whom the expected profit is highest will be the highest bidder for political power. However in their model there is not an argument to explain why these people are elected to public offices. This paper presents a supply model and a demand model explaining why politicians behave as “wicked" men, and are elected by the citizens. Firstly, we develop a model of repetitive and reputation games that shows why probity is not important for many politicians. The second model employs asymmetric information theory to explain why voters elect “wicked" people even if probity is a highly estimated value for them. The paper ends with some suggestions of legal reforms for reducing this asymmetry of information. classification D72. D82     

Y-chromosome STR haplotype diversity in Brazilian populations

A sample of 198 unrelated males distributed among the five geopolitical regions in Brazil were typed for the minimal Y-STR haplotype composed of microsatellite loci DYS19, DYS385I/II, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392 and DYS393. Gene frequency data, gene diversity, haplotype diversity and power of discrimination were estimated. An AMOVA indicated that 99.97% of the haplotypic variation is found within regions and only a small 0.03% and non significant variation is found among the five regions (Fst=0.00031, P-value=0.43). This result suggests that a single national database of Y-STR haplotypes can be used in the quantitative assessment of matches in forensic casework in the Brazilian population. A significant haplotype diversity of 99.8% was found and 172 different haplotypes were observed in 198 chromosomes. Haplotype (14-11, 14-13-29-24-11-13-13) with five occurrences in 198 chromosomes was the most frequent in Brazil.     

Two fatal intoxication cases with imidacloprid: LC/MS analysis

Imidacloprid [1-(6-chloro-3pyridylmethyl)-N-nitroimidazolidin-2-ylideneamine] is a new and potent nitromethylene insecticide with high insecticidal activity at very low application rates. It is the first highly effective insecticide that, like nicotine, acts on the nervous system, causing blockage of postsynaptic nicotinergic acetylcholine receptors. Two fatal cases with this insecticide in two male individuals, of 33 and 66 years old, are presented. An LC/MS with electrospray method for measuring imidacloprid and its metabolites in post-mortem samples is described. In the chromatographic separation, a reverse-phase column XTerra MS C18 (2.1mm i.d.x 150 mm, 5 microm) was used and the mobile phase composed with acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid (15:85), at a 0.25 mL/min flow rate. Samples were prepared with a liquid-liquid extraction procedure with dichloromethane. Calibration curves for imidacloprid in blood and urine samples were linear from 0.2 to 15 microg/mL. The mean recovery was 86% with a coefficient of variation of +/-5.9%. The detection limit was 0.002 microg/mL. Quantitative results were obtained for all post-mortem matrices available of the two fatal cases: blood, urine, stomach contents, lung, liver and kidney. The imidacloprid blood concentrations found in two-cases were 12.5 and 2.05 microg/mL. The authors validated a method to detect and quantify imidacloprid in post-mortem samples, and to our knowledge for the first time a post-mortem tissue distribution was performed on various samples for this insecticide.     

How to Push an Elephant Through a Straw: Using Wireless Technology in a Web-enhanced Skills Program

The title of this article derives from the expression used by programmers and developers to explain problems of limited network bandwidth connection speeds. The ever-increasing demand by growing numbers of web users for bandwidth-intensive media is outstripping the Internet's capacity to deliver information. In this case, the 'Elephant' is the massive online information system, including text, graphics, audio, and video, and the 'Straw' is the low bandwidth through which only a fixed volume can move. Generally, compression of data is the way to push that elephant through the straw. Included among those users competing for bandwidth are law schools. In the last decade, technology has begun to occupy a more pivotal role in American legal education. As law firms increase their use of technology in response to client demand, they must hire associates who graduate from law school prepared for high-technology law practice. The resulting pressure on law schools to incorporate technology into class materials and instruction has arisen contemporaneously with pressure to increase the teaching of lawyering skills. A tension arises, however, between the obligation of legal educators to expose students to emerging technologies and the additional burdens thereby imposed upon law schools to add lawyering skills to the the existing curriculum without displacing needed doctrinal and analytical instruction. The authors are faculty members and administrators at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) Shepard Broad Law Center, which was named "Most Wired Law School" by National Jurist in 1998 and 2001. The centrepiece of legal education at NSU is a high technology Lawyering Skills and Values Program that employs wireless classrooms and web-enhanced education. Delivering a lawyering skills course through technology is not unlike pushing an elephant through a straw. The challenge is to accomplish pedagogical goals without compressing either the curriculum or the social processes of teaching and learning. This article describes and evaluates the authors' practical experiences planning, implementing, and teaching a Lawyering Skills course to first-year students in a wireless classroom environment.     

Ouch! Western Feminists' ‘Wounded Attachment’ to the ‘Third World Prostitute’

‘Trafficking in women’ has, in recent years, been the subject of intense feminist debate. This article analyses the position of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) and the writings of its founder, Kathleen Barry. It suggests that CATW's construction of ‘third world prostitutes’ is part of a wider western feminist impulse to construct a damaged ‘other’ as justification for its own interventionist impulses. The central argument of this article is that the ‘injured body’ of the ‘third world trafficking victim’ in international feminist debates around trafficking in women serves as a powerful metaphor for advancing certain feminist interests, which cannot be assumed to be those of third world sex workers themselves. This argument is advanced through a comparison of Victorian feminist campaigns against prostitution in India with contemporary feminist campaigns against trafficking.The term ‘injured identity’ is drawn from Wendy Brown's (1995) States of Injury, Power and Freedom in Late Modernity. Brown argues that certain groups have con.gured their claims to inclusion in the liberal state in terms of ‘historical ‘injuries’. Antoinette Burton (1998) extends Brown's analysis to look at Victorian feminists’ relationship to Empire, arguing that the ‘injured identities’ of colonial ‘others’ were central to feminist efforts to mark out their own role in Empire. This paper builds on Burton's analysis, asking what role the ‘injured identities’ of third world sex workers play in the construction of certain contemporary feminist identities. The notion of ‘injured identities’ offers a provocative way to begin to examine how CATW feminists position the ‘traficking victim’ in their discourse. If ‘injured identity’ is a constituent element of late modern subject formation, this may help explain why CATW and Barry rely so heavily on the ‘suffering’ of ‘third world traficking victims’ in their discourses of women's subjugation. It also raises questions about the possible repressive consequences of CATW's efforts to combat ‘traficking in women’ through ‘protective’ legislation.